Elon Musk suddenly drowns in misconduct allegations

Eight SpaceX employees fired in 2022 sued Elon Musk on Wednesday, alleging they were ousted for raising allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the company.

The lawsuit, filed in California, alleges that Musk “knowingly and willfully created a hostile and undesirable work environment through his conduct in introducing vile sexual photographs, memes and comments into the workplace that demeaned women.” and/or the LGBTQ+ community.” The sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit focuses on a 2022 incident in which Musk posted jokes about sexual misconduct allegations made against him by a SpaceX flight attendant. After Musk made these jokes, the lawsuit's defendants wrote an open letter calling out his crude statements and the company's culture — for which they claim they were fired.

According to the lawsuit, Musk himself made the decision to fire them after a human resources member claimed an investigation needed to be opened before letting the defendants go. “I don’t care, fire them,” Musk said, according to the complaint. Already, the majority of the defendants have raised concerns with the National Labor Relations Board, which concluded in a filing last month that Musk illegally fired them. SpaceX – which did not respond to requests for comment – ​​then sued the NLRB in response.

Musk has previously faced allegations of sexual misconduct, including a 2016 incident in which he allegedly gave a flight attendant a horse in exchange for an erotic massage; SpaceX then paid the woman $250,000 to keep quiet. But the timing could create significant problems for the world's richest man. Late Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had sex with several female SpaceX employees – having sex with a former intern 20 years his junior, having sex with a direct report, and asking another employee to have his children. (Musk has not commented on these allegations.) With all of this on Tesla shareholders' minds, Musk faces a vote on his pay package that could cost him tens of billions of dollars if he loses.